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WSJA Ch. #655 Released/ News Roundup February 13-22 2012

Before I get started with this usual shindig, I just want to apologize for getting this is out late. I have a life after all, but sometimes life gets in the way of “One Piece”. No promises but I still intend to come out with these every Monday. Anyway…

- Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha is out for the week of February 20th, 2012.

(Disclaimer: News may or may not be in any particular chronological and/or thematic order)

- This is actually late news but it’s not so late that’s it not relevant to report here. On February 7th VIZ Media announced they had expanded their titles available on Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet and Nook Color devices. Among the titles announced was “One Piece”, with volumes 1-58. I haven’t checked if more volumes have been put on Nook since then:

- On February 13th Bandai Namco Games held a press event to celebrate the completion of development of “One Piece” Pirate Warriors”. Among the festivities at the event was the announcement that the game had received over half a million pre-orders:

- “One Piece” #65 stayed in first place for the week of February 6th to the 12th on Oricon’s Japanese comic rankings. It sold an estimated 617,760 copies for an estimated total of 2,552,721 copies. Volume 64 also went from 21st to 24th place and sold an estimated 25,469 copies, for an estimated grand total of 3,051,732 copies:

- Weekly Shonen Jump revealed the DLC costumes for “Pirate Warriors”. On March 1st, the day of the game’s launch, players can download a musha (samurai) version of Luffy for free. On March 8th, you can get Nami in a kimono. Both costumes are based on versions of the respective characters as drawn in Oda’s color spreads. More costumes are planned as well:

- The cyber-crime unit of Consumer and Economic Division of Miyagi Prefectural Policerecently arrested a man on suspicion of selling 57 pirated DVD-Rs, including “One Piece 8th Season: Water Seven Arc Piece 1”, from July 16th to August 17th 2011:

- Plex is coming out with their new Real Mask Project line, and the first piece in their line is the Sogeking mask. You’ll be able to mount this coldcast mask on your wall, which measures 35 x 46 x 18 cm., at the price of 7,600 yen, or about $96. It comes out sometime in March, although pre-orders have closed for a while:

- Comic book/pop-culture site ICv2 recently came out with their 2011 market reports, as determined by interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. In the top 25 overall manga properties of 2011, “One Piece” was the 10th most popular in America:

- Francisco Ortega Gornes posted a YouTube video on the One Piece Podcast Facebook page that shows off a sneak peek of the upcoming “One Piece” art exhibit (if you don’t know what I’m talking about ask; I reported on it a few times). It was recorded off some Japanese talk show or something, but anyway it shows off some kind of cool animated manga film presentation:

- Francisco posted some more cool stuff on the One Piece Podcast Facebook page, this time about the manga release in Spain. Plantea deAgostini, the publisher of “One Piece” in Spain, is holding a campaign titled “One Piece Year” in order to bring new readers into the manga. The publisher will be starting out by re-releasing the first volume in a special format at the low, low price of 1,95 euros. It’ll be the same size as a normal volume but without the usual jacket, and will be released on March 20th:

- From February 24th to the 26th (actually probably happening right now as I type this), the Japanese cultural event Hyper Japan is being held in Earls Court, London. Toei Animation will be there with some “One Piece” promotion, including the chance for attendees to win prizes ( a “One Piece” video game, a Uniqlo T-shirt, or a Bandai figurine) and for 3DS owners to receive a special promotion to watch “One Piece” episodes through wi-fi:

- Between AP Forums users MarcelloF and hudemx, we got some cool updates on the anime release in Germany. On February 17t there was supposed to be a press release that goes into more detail about the upcoming T.V. series DVDs, but it got postponed. But on the bright side we still found out some new details. The FSK (the ratings system for T.V. shows and movies in Germany) has rated the first 30 episodes of “One Piece” (what I’m assuming will comprise the first boxset) FSK 12, meaning ages 12 and up. According the source (which can be found in post #762 in the German-Dubbed One Piece (VIVA) thread), the episodes have a longer running time than the uncut episodes currently airing on VIVA, leading to speculation that the first boxset could include the Japanese masters.

Also, here is cover art/solicitations for the first T.V. series boxset as well as the DVD and BD for Movie 9:

- We’re getting some cool updates about the upcoming release of “One Piece” in Russia. The first volume of the manga is already out there (with a first-print run of 6,000 copies), and thanks to Comix-Art (and the one and only AlinaJames), the Russian dub of the anime will premiere in March on the channel 2x2. For more in-depth info check out the thread: